Report: Hugh Jackman Took a Pay Cut so ‘Logan’ Could Get That R Rating

It’s tougher than it seems for a superhero movie to get an R rating. These days, most of them fall somewhere around the PG-13 spectrum, which allows teen audiences easy access to the comic book movies usually geared toward them, as well as families to bring the smaller kids whose favorite toy is their oversize talking Hulk hands. But Logan is a superhero movie of a different sort, so it needs a rating that puts it in a different category from the other X-Men movies. To achieve that R rating, probably through violence and language, the star Hugh Jackman apparently took a pay cut so that the film could get there.

Ain’t It Cool News’ Eric Vespe tweeted that director James Mangold told him about the cut.

While superhero movies usually try to steer clear of the R to keep their audience as broad as possible, this year’s Deadpool as well as Marvel’s considerably dark Netflix shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage proved that there’s definitely a market for the kind of super-flick that caters to adults only. But why the pay cuts? Throwing in a certain number of f-bombs would secure an R rating easily, and Wolverine’s exactly the right character for that, but I have a feeling it’s the violence that’ll push this one into R territory, and that violence probably comes with a steep effects budget. We saw the dude impale another guy’s head on his claws, and that was just in the trailer. While the action in Logan will revolve around a young girl, this one won’t be for the kids.